A-Z OF MOURINHO MAYHEM

February 16, 2014
Elijah Ogidi-Olu
0 Comments

Mr. Jose Mourinho! The ridiculously outspoken 51 year-old chelsea boss has
started the other side of his managerial role once again since Friday. This
time, digging up the buried axe between him and long serving Arsenal boss.
Arsene Wenger. Their rivalry dates back to almost a decade ago. The latest
update was Wenger's reply after dumping Liverpool out of the FA Cup on Sunday
evening.

With that in mind, it's thanks to Ben Hayward for this article from the
popular Goal.com. He made a compilation of the A-Z of Jose Mourinho's Mayhem
and what other coaches who has also at one time or the other fallen victim of
his verbal attack, now refer to as "Acid Tongue".

A is for ambulances: When Petr Cech suffered a severe head injury
after clattering into another player at Reading, Mourinho pointed the finger at
the ambulance service and claimed that their slow reaction could have proved
fatal for his goalkeeper. "Thirty minutes in the dressing room, waiting
for an ambulance ... If my goalkeeper dies in that dressing room, it is
something English football has to think about," the Portuguese raged. The
reality, however, was rather different: the ambulance arrived after seven
minutes and within 19, Cech was already in hospital.

B is for Benitez: Mourinho and Rafa Benitez have never seen eye to eye
and their rivalry was not restricted only to the pitch during the Portuguese's
time at Chelsea and the Spaniard's spell at Liverpool, when the Reds beat the
Blues in two Champions League semi-finals. Later, Benitez replaced Mourinho at
Inter and the Portuguese poured scorn on his rival's triumph in the Club World
Cup as he took the credit for the trophy. "I thought he was going to thank
me for the title I gave him," Mourinho said. "Inter fans would tell
you how they really feel about it."

C is for the Camp Nou car park: Furious at several decisions by
referee Jose Antonio Teixeira Vitienes in Madrid's Copa del Rey quarter-final
second-leg clash at Camp Nou in January 2012, Mourinho waited for the official
in the car park following his side's elimination and directed abuse at the
Cantabrian. "Now you will go and have a cigar and you will laugh,
artist!" he is reported to have told the official. The Portuguese had
earlier appealed for three penalties, believed Lionel Messi should have been dismissed
for a second bookable offence and was unhappy at Sergio Ramos' red card. In the
press room he said: "I won't speak about the referee, but what I have
heard in the dressing room is that it is impossible to win here."

D is for Dani Alves: When Barca's Dani Alves claimed Mourinho had not
invented football, the Portuguese sarcastically compared the defender to Albert
Einstein and reminded the Brazilian that "it was a Portuguese" who
discovered his country. Mourinho also accused Alves of simulation to get Pepe
sent off in the Champions League semi-final against Barca in 2011 and can
clearly be seen shouting obscenities to the Brazilian in another Clasico
clash.

E is for EPL: Mourinho met Arsenal's Ashley Cole without permission to
discuss a transfer to Chelsea and, following an inquiry, the English Premier
League fined the Portuguese €245,000 for tapping up the player. The punishment
was later reduced to €92,000.
F is for Frisk: Popular referee Anders Frisk was forced to retire from the
game after he was wrongly accused by Mourinho of inviting then Barcelona boss
Frank Rijkaard to his room at half-time in a Champions League last-16 clash at
Camp Nou. Rijkaard remonstrated with the official at the break but the Dutchman
was not allowed to follow the official into his room. Mourinho, however,
claimed otherwise and blamed the invented incident for the second-half
dismissal of Didier Drogba as Chelsea lost 2-1. The Swede later received death
threats from Blues supporters and was forced out of the game altogether. Uefa
referees' chief Volker Roth later labelled Mourinho 'the enemy of football' for
the Frisk fiasco.

G is for Guardiola: Mourinho was assistant coach at Barcelona when Pep
Guardiola was club captain and the pair were close, but there was no love lost
between them as they went head to head for two seasons in Spain. The Portuguese
mocked the Catalan following the Copa del Rey final in 2011 after Guardiola had
lamented a close offside call that saw a Pedro strike ruled out. "There is
now a new group of which only he is a member, which criticises referees'
correct decisions." Guardiola responded with a rant of his own before
Barca and Madrid met in the Champions League and after the Catalans came out on
top, Mourinho attacked his former friend once again. "He knows how he has
won the Champions League twice," he said, bemoaning what he called 'The
Scandal of Stamford Bridge' - when Pep's 2009 side survived to beat the Blues
as several decisions went in their favour.

H is for handcuffs: Mourinho received a three-game touchline ban and a
€4,000 fine following a "handcuffs" gesture during Inter's game
against Genoa in February, 2010. The Portuguese protested as Walter Samuel and
Ivan Cordoba were sent off, and made the gesture (in front of the television
cameras, for maximum effect) as Samuel Eto'o was booked, alluding to
victimisation from the officials.

I is for Iker: Not long into his reign as Madrid coach, Mourinho
claimed captain Iker Casillas was the best goalkeeper in the world. But
relations with the Spain shot-stopper proved prickly from the outset and the
Portuguese benched his skipper in December 2012. Later, when Iker was injured,
he signed Diego Lopez and kept the new man in the side for the remainder of the
campaign, not even calling Casillas up for the last match of the season.

J is for Jesualdo Ferreira: Mourinho met veteran coach Jesualdo
Ferreira in the 1980s when he was a student at the Lisbon Superior Institute
for Physical Education and Ferreira was a teacher. Mou later refused to
accept Ferreira as his assistant in his first coaching role at Benfica and
mocked the older man in a column with Portuguese paper Record as he
wrote: "This could be the story of a donkey who worked for 30 years but
never became a horse." Ferreira, however, went on to win three titles in a
row with Porto.

K is for Klopp: Ahead of Madrid's Champions League semi-final tie
against Borussia Dortmund in April of last year, Mourinho hit out at BVB boss
Jurgen Klopp. "Klopp talks to much," he said. "Since the draw,
he has spoken every day."

L is for laundry baskets: Mourinho clambered into a laundry basket in a
Champions League quarter-final tie against Bayern Munich in order to beat a ban
and deliver his pre-match and half-time team talks. The coach was wheeled in
and out of the dressing room without Uefa's knowledge despite being barred from
contact with his players in both legs. Chelsea later denied the claims.

M is for Muntari: Mourinho caused controversy in the Islamic world by
questioning Sulley Muntari's decision to fast during Ramadan. After
substituting the Ghanaian during Inter's draw with Bari in 2009, the Portuguese
said: "Muntari had some problems related to Ramadan, perhaps with this
heat it's not good for him to be doing this [fasting]. Ramadan has not arrived
at the ideal moment for a player to play a football match." The comments
drew strong criticism from prominent Islamic figures in Italy.

N is for nationality: Mourinho has blamed what he considered to be
poor treatment in Madrid on a very Iberian issue. "It is difficult to be a
Portuguese in Spain," he claimed in 2013. The 50-year-old also told the
media in 2012 that he would sign no more Portuguese players for Madrid after
seeing Fabio Coentrao suffer in the Spanish capital. "The Portuguese have
a tough life at Real Madrid," he explained. "I wouldn't bring any
more Portuguese players here - they have to have a special mentality to resist
a situation which is not easy for them."O is for O'Neill: Mourinho attacked former Celtic coach Martin
O'Neill before the Scottish side met Barcelona in the Uefa Cup in 2004.
Recalling the 2003 Uefa Cup final between his Porto side and O'Neill's Celtic,
Mourinho said: "We kept the ball and they just ran all over the pitch
trying to get to us with their horrible and aggressive style."

P is for Pepe: When Pepe defended benched club captain Casillas after a
Liga clash against Valladolid in April of last year, Mourinho turned on his
once trusted defender. "Pepe has a problem - and his name is Raphael Varane,"
the coach claimed, alluding to the 20-year-old defender who had displaced the
Portugal centre-back in the team.

Q is for Queiroz: "Portugal have no chance of winning the World
Cup, even if Cristiano Ronaldo plays at 1,000 per cent," Mourinho said of
the side coached by Carlos Queiroz in 2010. "What Mourinho says makes us
think deeply," responded Queiroz, who was said to be furious by his
compatriot's remarks. But his team was unable to respond on the pitch and
Cristiano Ronaldo was nowhere near 100 per cent in a sterile side, let alone
1,000%.

R is for Ronaldo: During his time at Chelsea, Mourinho was embroiled in
a war of words with Ronaldo after claiming Manchester United often found favour
with referees. Ronaldo responded by calling Mourinho a sore loser, but the
coach hit back by saying: "He doesn't show maturity and respect. Maybe a
difficult childhood, no education, maybe [it is] the consequence of that."S is for Stick: Mourinho's most infamous bust-up in Italy was with
former Catania sporting director Pietro Lo Monaco. Angered by Jose's conduct
following Inter's controversial 2-1 win over the Sicilians, Lo Monaco roared,
"Mourinho deserves to be smacked in the teeth with a stick." The
Special One responded with a classic line of his own: "As for Lo Monaco, I
do not know who he is. I have heard of Bayern Monaco [the Italian name for
Bayern Munich] and the Monaco GP, the Tibetan Monaco [Monk], and the
principality of Monaco. I’ve never heard of any others."

T is for Tito: Perhaps his lowest blow: Mourinho poked then Barca
assistant coach Tito Vilanova in the eye following a melee at the end of
Madrid's Spanish Supercopa defeat to the Catalans in August of 2011 and later
stunned the media as he said: "Who is Pito Vilanova? I don't know who Pito
Vilanova is ..."

U is for Uefa and Unicef: During his most memorable press-room rant in
Spain, Mourinho accused Barcelona of receiving favours from Uefa and also
questioned the Catalan club's working relationship with charity Unicef as he
reeled off a long list of conspiracy theories.

V is for Valdano: Mourinho and Madrid's then director general Jorge
Valdano were all smiles as the Portuguese was unveiled in the summer of 2010,
but a power struggle ensued and the coach publicly hit out at the Argentine for
failing to defend his side's interests. "[He] should be defending the
team," Mourinho said in December of 2010. "The club has a structure
but it's not working - I want a meeting with the president." And, in the
summer, Valdano was gone.

W is for Wenger: In 2005, after Wenger made comments on Chelsea's 1-1
draw with Everton and the Blues' League Cup defeat against Charlton, Mourinho
infamously labelled the Frenchman a "voyeur". "I think he is one
of these people who is a voyeur," said the Portuguese coach. "He
likes to watch other people. There are some guys who, when they are at home,
have a big telescope to see what happens in other families. He speaks, speaks,
speaks about Chelsea. He should be worried about them [Arsenal]. He's worried
about us, he's always talking about us. It's Chelsea, Chelsea, Chelsea,
Chelsea." Wenger had merely claimed the Blues' dip in form had given the
club's rivals "a little bit of hope" in the title race. The Frenchman
has now been labelled a "specialist" in failure by Mourinho, in
response to Wenger's claim that the Portuguese's refusal to admit that Chelsea
are title contenders was down to a "fear to fail".

X is for Xavi: The Barcelona midfielder told Portuguese paper Record
in 2012: "Guardiola has revolutionised football, there is no comparison -
his worth is considerably higher [than Mourinho's]." The then Madrid boss
replied by simply saying: "Xavi should concentrate on playing
football."

Y is for Yorkshire terrier: Mourinho was arrested and cautioned after
allegedly refusing to allow police to quarantine his pet dog - a Yorkshire
terrier - in 2007. The Portuguese received a call from his wife telling
him police were at their home in London, rushed home in a taxi from an award
ceremony and grabbed the animal from a health official.

Z is for Zeman: When former Roma and Lazio coach Zdenek Zeman claimed
that Mourinho was a "mediocre" tactician, the Portuguese hit back
with some strong words. "I am a mediocre coach? Okay! I respect every
opinion," Mourinho stated. "Zeman? I do not know him. Where does he
play? He is a coach? Sorry, I did not know that. Now that I am on holiday I
will look him up on Google to find out who he is and what he has won."

Hello. I'm Ogidi-Olu Elijah. A Creative Content Developer, Freelance writer and Blogger. I also help people manage their blogs via content management. Thanks for checking me out on MMT. Where, we talk with no holds barred. Got something for me? Kindly send me a mail. It's good to have you here. Let's have some fun!

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